


amour doux

by bisousniall



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-07 22:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisousniall/pseuds/bisousniall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niall runs an authentic French bakery in London, and he swears he hired Zayn for the extra help, not just for his looks. Also his employee Louis is harbouring a huge crush on their customer, Liam. Harry is there to keep them all together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	amour doux

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is basically a love letter to French baking. There's a lot of French used, but check out the glossary at the end. Also there's a tiny bit of Narry.
> 
> Lots of love to my Ziall family, because they never stopped prodding at me and I never would have finished without them. Especially Caitlin ([la_faerie](http://archiveofourown.org/users/la_faerie)), Lindsay ([icecreamsocialist](http://archiveofourown.org/users/icecreamsocialist)) who read it over for me. Bisous.
> 
> Also, maybe listen to some cute [Parisian cafe music](http://8tracks.com/oui-mandie/french-cafe) while you read. Merci.

“What do we think of tarte aux pommes for tomorrow’s special?” Niall called out from the kitchen as he worked on the pâte sucrée for the tarte au potiron. It was fall and the bakery was alive with the smell of nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin and apple.

“It’s a bit uninspired, isn’t it?” Louis replied from the front counter, where he was balancing out the till for the day.

“It is, yeah, but that’s the problem with fall and winter, innit? Everyone wants the classics, apple and pumpkin in the fall, heavy puddings and cakes in the winter. You just can’t get away with anything creative.”

“Don’t forget you and Harry are by yourselves tomorrow from ten-thirty until one.”

Niall sighed. He had completely forgotten about the fact that Louis had booked off a few hours for an appointment the next day. It wasn’t going to be impossible to keep the shop open while Louis wasn’t there, but it did mean Niall would be behind on prep for the next day, which meant he would probably have to stay late to finish all of his work.

“I’m still not sure why you haven’t hired another employee. The bakery is doing quite well, it’s not like you can’t afford it, mate. Harry and I might want a day off now and again”

In hindsight, letting Louis look at the expenses for Le Gâteau d'Amour was a bad idea. He had a point though, they really could use another employee for the front end, and someone to help Niall keep up with the baking.

When Niall graduated from the Baking Academy of Ireland, this was the goal: running his own bakery. He travelled around the world, taking classes, working and learning the secrets. A year in New York at the International Culinary Center, two years in France studying at Ferrandi and working at Pain de Sucre. Then it was working in Berlin for a year at Café Einstein Stammhaus. He then settled in London and worked around for about three years before he decided it was time to open his own bakery.

A year and a half later, Le Gâteau d'Amour was open, Niall’s very own French specialty bakery. It was a lot of hard work the first couple years, but somehow the bakery managed to establish itself with the locals, became known as an authentic French pâtisserie but in the heart of London. It didn’t hurt that Harry Styles, who worked the front end, could sweet talk just about anyone and was, as Niall figured, about fifty percent of the charm of the bakery. Twenty-five percent was Louis, who could convince a customer that buying a pastry was the best decision they would make all day. The other twenty-five percent was the actual baking itself.

Niall was nothing if not modest.

  


He woke up an hour earlier than usual the next morning so he could get some of the extra work done before Harry would show up at seven. He arrived at the bakery at 4:30 a.m, before the sun had even begun to rise, the air still bitter and damp from all the rain London had received overnight. Niall immediately got to work on the pâte feuilletée for the tarte aux pommes. By the time Harry showed up, Niall had baked six of the tarte aux pommes, and most of the cookies and pastries they served every day. Harry had become quite adept at some of the smaller jobs, like piping the macarons, icing some of the gâteaux and the éclairs au chocolat, and sifting confectioner’s sugar over some of the soufflés.

“So I hear you’re hiring a new employee."

Niall let the pâte sucrée he was trying to work through with his hands flop down onto the floured counter with a soft _thump_.

"Who did you hear that from, then?"

"Louis."

Of course.

"Louis was the one who brought it up yesterday, I said absolutely nothing."

"But Louis said it, which means you’re probably thinking about it, which means you probably _will_ be hiring someone new.”

Unfortunately, Harry was right. The idea of hiring someone had been occupying his thoughts ever since Louis mentioned it. Niall wished he could be more irritated by the influence Louis had been able to gain over him, but somehow those tactics also worked on convincing people to buy pastries. So he couldn't be too upset.

"It'd be nice though, wouldn't it? Someone to help me back here if I needed it. Or to help up in the front if you or Louis ever wanted some time off."

"Yeah Niall, it'd be great."

  


Every week day they were busy from about ten-thirty to noon, usually during that time Niall would be in the kitchen baking cookies and tartelettes. Instead, he was out at the front, trying to help people pick out whatever it was they were craving that day. Niall knew he didn't quite have Harry's charm, or Louis' persuasive capabilities, but he was personable and he knew the pastries better than anyone else. It seemed to be working like magic too, because as noon rolled around the display cases were almost empty, and Niall and Harry were scrambling to refill them as they still served the last few customers from their rush.

Niall was just in the middle of refilling the fours au cafe when he was startled by Harry shouting out “Zayn!” and then pushing past Niall to get out from behind the counters and into the shop area. Then Harry was hugging someone, a guy wearing a leather jacket, dark jeans and sporting a high quiff. Niall was frozen, staring at the scene in front of him. Harry pulled away and gestured towards Niall.

"This is my boss, Niall. Niall, this is my old uni mate, Zayn."

Niall was suddenly embarrassed, standing there holding his tray of petite fours, absolutely covered in flour, cheeks even more red than usual from exertion, while this otherworldly man was holding his hand out to shake Niall's. He didn't want to be rude, so he placed the tray down and brushed some of the flour off his hands before accepting Zayn's handshake. Zayn's hand was warm, his smile was inviting, his eyes brilliant, his cheekbones to die for and Niall was suddenly remembering why he didn't make a habit of socialising with people he found intensely attractive.

“...right Niall?” Harry’s voice broke up his train of thought, and Niall realized he had been standing there lost in his own head while a conversation happened around him.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I said that you were looking to hire someone, weren’t you? Zaynie here just got back from France and he’s looking for a job.”

"Yeah, I am, you should definitely come work here!"

"Wait, you serious?"

"Well you need a job, I need an employee, it's kinda perfect, yeah? Tomorrow and Saturday are going to be too busy to get anything done, and we’re closed Sundays and Mondays, but I always come in Monday afternoon to get some prep work done. Be here at two?”

A smile broke out on Zayn’s face, blindingly brilliant and Niall felt elated. Zayn thanked him profusely before rushing out of the bakery with a “you won’t regret this!”

Niall turned to face Harry, who was still just standing there, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Niall's stomach dropped, and suddenly he felt like he may have done something really hasty and foolish. He hated how Harry could do that to him just from a look.

“Well, Niall, that was awfully generous of you. But, you didn’t even interview him or anything.”

“Well, he needed a job, I needed an employee, what could be more perfect?”

“Yeah, but you wanted help in the kitchen, and I don’t think Zayn’s ever baked a thing in his life. Don’t you think you should've talked to him first?"

Harry may have had a point, and Niall was starting to think that this was one of those situations where he should have thought about what he was saying, like Louis was always suggesting. He wasn’t going to admit that to Harry, though.

“I hate interviewing people, and having to turn them away.” Niall grimaced, just to really sell it. “I’m a busy man you know, I’ve got important baking-type things to do. No time for interviews.” With that he picked up his tray of fours au cafe and pointedly ignored the look Harry was giving him.

  


"So tomorrow we're doing the pumpkin spice macarons, individually and in those gift boxes of six."

“Sounds good, pâtissier Niall.”

“‘s gonna be a busy day.”

“Fridays always are. Good thing you hired Harry’s friend, yeah?”

At this point, Niall wasn't even sure why he was shocked. Harry told Louis everything. Niall stopped stirring the filling for his pumpkin spice macarons and looked up. Louis was leaning against the arched doorway to the kitchen, grinning madly at Niall with a familiar gleam in his eyes.

"He needed a job, and Harry's been a good employee, I know he wouldn't suggest someone terrible."

"Harry's a great lad, of course he wouldn't."

"We'll then, what's with the Disney villain smile, and all the judging?"

"All I'm saying is Harry reckons that you may have an ulterior motive in hiring his sexy university friend."

"Who said he was sexy?"

"Harry did. He also said that you didn’t even think twice about hiring the sexy university friend.”

“His name is Zayn.”

“ _Sexy_ Zayn.”

Niall knew he was bright red by this point. He could feel his cheeks burning, and Louis was smirking at him and God Niall hated that smirk sometimes.

"Alright, he was pretty hot, but that's not why I hired him." Probably a lie. "I hired him because it was convenient. End of, Tommo."

Louis just shrugged it off with an "ok, pâtissier," before turning around to leave for the night.

"Hold on, Louis," Niall called out. "Speaking of hot guys, your mystery man came in again today. While you were at your appointment." Louis popped his head back into the kitchen. This time Niall was the one smirking.

"Did he say anything?"

"Nah, but he looked all disappointed, kind of like a kicked puppy. Then he bought an éclair au chocolat before leaving."

A few seconds passed and Louis didn’t say anything, so Niall added “I don’t know why you haven’t asked him out yet, he’s clearly sweet on you. Pun intended.”

“Probably straight and probably just likes the baking or something.”

Niall didn't bother pointing out that mystery boy only ever chats with Louis, and that if Louis is busy but Harry isn’t, he’ll wait until Louis is free before he approaches the counter. Also that the first time mystery boy ever came in Louis told him his favourite pastry was the éclair au chocolat, and that’s all he’s bought ever since then. He just waved good bye with a “bonsoir, Louis.”

“Bonsoir, pâtissier.”

  


Friday and Saturday were just as busy as Niall was expecting them to be, and he didn’t have a spare moment to think about Zayn joining him in the bakery Monday afternoon. In fact, he had almost forgotten about Zayn completely until Harry was leaving after his shift on Saturday and called out “have fun with Zayn on Monday,” complete with shit-eating grin.

Niall was nervous, he could admit that to himself. He spent a large majority of his Sunday off thinking about scenarios that could arise from having hired Zayn. He could be a shit awful employee, but a really great person and Niall wouldn’t have the strength to fire him. Or, he could be a great employee but be a total douchebag and Niall would _want_ to fire him. Or, and this was possibly the worst outcome Niall could come up with, Zayn could be a perfect employee _and_ an amazing person. Then Niall would have to deal with wanting to push him up against the counter and snog him relentlessly, day in and day out. In other words: absolute torture.

When Niall arrived at the shop about ten minutes before two in the afternoon, Zayn was already outside the front door waiting for him, tucked into the doorway to get shelter from the rain, cigarette hanging from his mouth. And glasses. Dark, thick-framed glasses. Niall’s mouth was suddenly quite dry and he had to swallow several times before he was able to speak.

“Zayn.” The name sounded awkward and forced in his voice, and it hit Niall that _he literally didn’t know anything about Zayn_. He didn’t know him well enough to be able to say his name with any sort of familiarity. Niall had been so concerned about not liking Zayn, what if Zayn didn’t like him. This was not something he had considered. But then Zayn was looking up at him, and removing the cigarette from his lips so he could smile back. “Hey, Niall, you alright?”

“Not so bad, yourself?”

“Listen, I just wanted to thank you, for, y’know, the job and all. You really didn’t need to do this.”

Niall ducked his head as he unlocked the front door to hide his reddening cheeks. “‘s alright. You’re a mate of Harry’s, I trust his judgement.” When Niall finally looked up, Zayn was already staring back at him, a content smile on his face and Niall could already hear a voice in his head saying “ _beautiful, lovely, perfect, kind, you’re fucked_.” Niall was quite inclined to agree.

  


“You’ve got to add just the right amount of egg in otherwise the pâte de choux will not rise properly. Beat the eggs, more Zayn, come on, otherwise the pastry is going to be too dense and it will not rise.” Niall had found it surprisingly easy to slip into the teaching role. “Don’t mix the base too much though, then the pastry will be too tough.”

“Jesus, why is this so complicated.”

Niall had to laugh at that. “Just wait until we get to the macarons. Now, you need to bake it for just the right amount of time otherwise the pastry will be soggy. It needs to be golden brown.”

“Mr. Perfectionist over here.” Zayn muttered as he grabbed the pan and turned around to put it in the oven.

Niall wasn’t really sure what came over him. Maybe he didn’t want to be known as a perfectionist, he had standards for his bakery but he wasn’t uptight or anything. And the flour was sitting right there. So easy to just reach in, grab a handful, and throw it into Zayn’s face when he turned around from putting the pâte de choux into the oven.

“What the fuck?!” Zayn was absolutely covered, the flour stark white against the dark of his hair and the black t-shirt he had worn in that day. His mouth agape, arms out to the side and Niall had to laugh because Zayn looked scandalized and absolutely hysterical. “You cheeky...” and Niall should have known it was coming, but he didn’t even have time to react before Zayn was stepping forward and grabbing a handful of sugar and repaying the favour. Then it was _on_. The kitchen was nothing but a cloud of white dust, flour and sugar flying as Zayn and Niall continued to barrage each other. Somewhere in the middle of it Niall remembered they were in his kitchen, and he would have to deal with the mess after.

“Truce! Truce!” The dust slowly settled. The kitchen was a mess, Zayn and Niall were both messes.

“Shit, your kitchen..."

“Ah, it’s fine. C’mon then, let’s go to the loo and clean up.”

The restroom in the back of the bakery was definitely not made for two people, and Niall tried not to make it obvious that he was staring at Zayn, but he was _right there_. It was especially hard to look at anything other than Zayn while he splashed water on his face, and ran a hand through his hair a few times to shake some of the sugar and flour out. He could honestly just step forward a bit, press Zayn up against the sink and let him lick some of the sugar that Niall could still feel on his lips. Could bite down on Zayn’s full bottom lip and get his hands into Zayn’s thick hair so he could pull his head back, exactly where he wanted it. Give himself easy access to see if he could taste some of the sweetness through the starchiness of the flour right where Zayn’s jaw met his throat.

It was possible Niall was pretty hard up. For so many years Niall’s life had consisted of nothing but making sure his bakery got off the ground, he hadn’t really had the time or the energy to seek out anything long term. There were hookups, casual one night stands when the opportunity presented itself, but it had been quite a while since he’d even had one of those. His body was reacting to the running commentary in his head and honestly, it was a bit embarrassing because nothing had even happened besides a bit of snogging. But his dick was definitely showing interest.

“You want a hand with that?”

“W-What?”

“The kitchen, it’s a disaster.”

Oh.

“Yeah maybe we should break out the mop.”

  


Louis was nervous. Niall could tell by the way he flitted about in the kitchen that morning, not really saying much of anything, and wringing his hands as Niall gave him the rundown of specials for the day. He didn’t even say a sexually charged comment making Niall blush and Zayn chuckle, which he had done every morning the whole two weeks Zayn had been working at the bakery.

“What’s his issue?” Niall asked, once Louis had left the kitchen.

“Think he’s finally asking out Liam today.”

“Mystery man!?” Niall shouted, a little over-excited. Zayn looked up from where he was filling and rolling some of the chaussons aux pommes, that day’s special. “Sorry, I mean Liam?”

“Louis mentioned it to Harry yesterday, and Harry told me”

“Wow, now I’m getting left out of bakery gossip, this isn’t fair.”

“Sorry, boss. Next time I find anything out, you’ll be the first to know.”

Niall smiled and got distracted for a few minutes as he watched Zayn fill the pastries with apple mixture, carefully fold the pastry over and then coat the tops of the chaussons with sugar and cinnamon. Zayn still struggled with making the actual pastry dough, but Niall was impressed by the way he picked up nearly everything else. His quick but careful fingers made him quite adept at filling and decorating different pastries, and he was great with the customers up front too. Niall was pretty upset about it. Zayn was a perfect employee, a really great person, Harry and Louis loved him, and Niall got along great with him. Niall was still ridiculously hard up, and working in close quarters with someone you really wanted to snog, among other things, made things _hard_. In every sense of the word.

“You’ve got quite good at them chaussons.”

Zayn smirked up at him. “It’s all in the fingers,” he explained with a wink.

Definitely very hard.

The rest of the day was quite hectic, Zayn made a batch of puff pastry that didn’t rise properly, “need to let it chill longer before you roll it out, Zayn mate,” and Niall had to help him quickly re-make a batch while he tried to decide what the next day’s special would be. It was about 4pm before he even got a chance to see Louis again, just as Zayn was getting ready to leave for the day.

“What’s up, Tommo?”

Louis just mumbled something, incoherent and under his breath. Zayn and Niall shared a worried look.

“Louis mate, y’alright?”

“It’s mystery man.”

“Liam?” Zayn asked.

“Yeah, Liam. He came in today. With a girl.”

Fuck.

“Oh Lou, I’m so sorry.” He rushed over to Louis and draped his arms over him in what he hoped was a comforting embrace.

“Wait, but how do you know they were dating?

“She was gorgeous, and they were holding hands and _laughing_ and oh God, this is so pathetic. Nothing was even gonna happen between us, I’ll get over it.”

“You’re allowed to be upset, Lou.” Zayn said.

Niall wasn’t great at consoling people, but he knew that baking helped to improve nearly every situation, so he sent Louis home with a package of his favourite éclairs au chocolat.

  


“Alright, so seeing as this is your first time making macarons, you’re definitely going to fuck them up.”

Zayn stuck out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. “Hey, what does that mean?”

Niall couldn’t help but laugh. Zayn looked like a petulant child, but he could never keep it together when Niall was laughing, so his pout broke into a silly grin that Niall loved seeing.

“It’s nothing personal, mate. Everyone fucks up their first batch of macarons. I fucked up my first three, s’all part of the learning process. But I can tell you the most common mistakes every rookie makes. One, the eggs are too fresh. We leave ours to sit on the counter for five days before we use them, perfect. Two, the icing sugar and ground almonds aren’t sifted enough. You can’t just sift them once, there must be no lumps. Two siftings or more, always.”

Niall had to admit that Zayn’s concentration face was pretty adorable. Every time Niall taught him something, he furrowed his brow and pursed his lips like he was focusing really hard. It was almost a little distracting how plush his lips looked like that, and it accented his already ridiculous cheekbones.

“When you whisk the sugar and egg whites to make the meringue, it has to be perfect, not too stiff and not too firm. And when you pipe them onto the sheet, you want them to be flat, very Ladurée style.”

“Mmm Ladurée macarons are the _best_. I used to have them in Paris all the time.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing quite like a Ladurée macaron in Paris. Almost makes you feel like you’re a born Parisian.”

“Exactly! I’d love to go back to Paris one day.”

“You just got home!”

“But it’s lovely over there, innit? We should go to Paris together sometime.”

Zayn had a far off dreamy look in his eyes, and Niall tried to convince himself that Zayn likely meant as friends. Just a platonic trip to the City of Love, of course.

“Maybe one day we can.”

Zayn did fuck up his first batch of macarons, quite spectacularly, just like Niall said he would.

  


“You excited for your trip home, Zayn?”

"Yeah, I haven't been home since like, I left for Paris.”

“What? That was six months ago, why haven’t you been back?”

“Well, I’ve been working here you know, and I dunno. I mean my parents weren’t exactly thrilled about me goin’ to Paris instead of like, using my degree to get a job.” Zayn laughed it off, but Niall just stopped scrubbing the counters to stare at Zayn. There was so much about him that Niall didn’t know yet.

“Niall?”

“Hm?”

“You’re just standing there, staring. What’s up?”

“Oh, s’nothin. Just thinkin’”

It was the bakery’s last day open before Christmas, meaning that instead of baking for the next day, Zayn and Niall were currently scrubbing down every inch of the kitchen. Zayn was going back home for the holidays, and he wouldn’t be back until after New Years. Niall was trying not to be too upset about it but he was just used to Zayn being around now, and he wasn’t looking forward to it one bit.

“Just gonna miss you, is all.” Niall hadn’t really meant to say that, but one second he was considering saying it, and the next it was coming out of his mouth.

“I’ll miss you too, Niall.”

By this point Niall _knew_ he was flushing more than his usual red complexion.

A couple hours later they were finishing up for the night and Zayn was getting ready to leave. Niall was really glad when Zayn spoke first because he didn’t really know how to say goodbye properly.

"So, it's gonna be a couple weeks until we see each other again." Zayn was just loitering around the door, watching Niall finish up the cleaning and sorting out before he left for the evening.

"I know, but, going to see your family and all. It's worth it, yeah?"

"Yeah, but I'm gonna miss the bakery. And, y'know. You."

Niall just dropped the rag he was using onto the counter and made his way over to the back hallway door where Zayn was standing. He reached out and brought Zayn into a hug. He smelled intensely of the Kirsch they'd been using to make fruit cake for the past few weeks. He took a step back to pull away, but Zayn tugged him back in, all off-balance and clumsy and their lips met, not quite aligned. Zayn pulled back minutely, re-adjusted his lips and Niall let out a sigh when they lined up perfectly with each other. Niall lost himself in it, only briefly. Zayn nudged his mouth open slightly and Niall followed suit. He could taste the sourness of Kirsch too, with a faint acrid tinge of cigarette smoke from his last break. He’d obviously been digging into the leftover fruit cake. Then Zayn’s tongue was touching his and Niall snapped back to reality. Pulled back forcefully from the kiss, stumbling a little as he gathered his footing again.

“Zayn.”

“Niall, I’m so sorry, I like, thought maybe you...it just just felt like you wanted to kiss me and I’m sorry.”

“No, Zayn it’s alright. You’re right, I did, _do_ want to kiss you. It’s just, I’m like your boss and I don’t want things to get awkward, because I need you. For the bakery.”

“Right, of course. No, I understand.” Zayn wasn’t even making eye contact. “Bye, Niall. See you after New Years.”

“Yes, Happy Christmas Zayn. Have a good New Years.”

“You too.”

Niall watched as Zayn turned around and quickly left the building, feeling a pit of dread building in his stomach. He felt like he had fucked up royally but he didn’t know any other way to handle that. His life had been about the bakery for so many years, he had found perfect employees and everything was going so well, he just didn’t want to fuck things up. He finished the cleaning as quickly as possible, and tried to ignore the fact that he could still taste Kirsch and cigarette smoke in his mouth.

  


“I’m sorry, you pushed him away?”

“I mean, it wasn’t a push, necessarily...”

“Niall! You’ve been mooning over Zayn since you met him, and he kissed you and you stopped it. Sexy Zayn was kissing you. You, gangly and ridiculous Niall Horan. Kissing sex god Zayn Malik.”

“Excuse me, what the fuck does that mean?”

“I’m sorry but people looking like Zayn don’t go around kissing people like you.”

“You’re a fucking arsehole, go back to the front of the shop. Let Harry deal with your shit.”

A few minutes later when Harry came into the kitchen, Niall was furiously kneading dough with an angry expression that was quite rare for him.

“I’m here to apologize for Louis.”

“Did he say he was sorry?” Niall didn’t even look up.

“Well, no but-”

“Then I don’t want to hear it.”

“But I know he feels bad! He told me what he said, and you’re right he’s being a total asshole but it’s only because he’s upset over Liam. He hasn’t come in yet today.”

Niall scoffed. “Why’s he still hung up on Liam, he hasn’t seen him in weeks, not since he came in with that girl.”

Niall’s irritation was waning. He could never really stay angry for long, and he was verging on over-kneading his dough, anyways.

“You know Louis, he’s a closet hopeless romantic.”

Niall’s eyes were still lowered, and he was picking pieces of dough and flour from his fingers.

“Look, I know Louis was right, though. I’m just ridiculous Niall, and he’s stupidly hot and nice and funny and everything.”

“He kissed you though. Zayn doesn’t just kiss anyone. Niall, come on.” Niall finally lifted his head and made eye contact with Harry. “Your life has been nothing but the bakery for so long, you worked so hard for this place and it’s doing so well. Don’t you think you should do something for your personal life for once? Zayn wants to kiss you and do other things with you, probably, and he loves the bakery. Is it really gonna get any better?”

Niall sighed and let his gaze fall back towards the ground. “I hate how you make things logical.”

  


The next day when Louis came in he apologized for being such an “asshat”, as he put it, and they hugged it out while Harry beamed at them like a proud parent.

The days between Christmas and New Years were never really busy for them, and seeing how they were closed for the next two days for New Years Eve and New Years Day, Niall was lounging in the front of the shop with Louis and Harry, talking more than actually getting any work done. They were all a little shocked when they heard the door open, and even more shocked when they saw mystery boy, Liam walking into the shop. Louis, who had been leaning against the wall immediately stood up and stepped towards the counter.

“Hi.”

“Hey, I don’t think I’ve seen all three of you at the counter before?”

“Slow day."

Harry cleared his throat loudly. "Niall and I will just be in the kitchen if you need anything." Niall rolled his eyes at Harry's complete inability to be subtle.

As soon as the kitchen door swung shut behind them, Harry was practically squealing, "Oh my God!"

"Harry shut up, we need to eavesdrop." Niall whispered as he pressed his ear up against the door. He couldn't really hear much, just murmured talking and a deep chuckle he didn't recognize that must have been Liam's. A few minutes later Louis was shouting out "idiots, you can come out now!"

"What happened? Are you dating now?" Harry asked excitedly once they were back in the front of the shop.

"He asked me for my number." Louis was practically beaming. "Said he thought I was cute. Oh, and the girl he was with is just a friend. Strictly platonic. So I invited him to the New Years party."

Harry made some incoherent sound of glee before pulling Niall and Louis into a group hug. Louis was laughing and chattering animatedly about how excited he was for the New Years party, and Niall was happy for him, he really was. It was just that it was hard to be over-excited when his own thoughts were preoccupied by warm brown eyes, nimble fingers and lips that tasted of cherry liqueur.

  


Niall was drunk. More drunk than he had been in a _very_ long time. He was used to having a couple pints with Harry and Louis, or with some of his friends from back home when they flew in from Ireland, but he hasn’t been _this_ level in a very long time. Dizzy and uncoordinated from too much hard liquor and mixed drinks being handed to him left and right. Harry’s strange melange of friends did not fuck around when it came to a party, Niall had learned. This one was no exception. He hadn’t seen Harry or Louis and Liam since the beginning of the party, when Louis arrived holding Liam’s hand, and awkwardly introduced him even though they both already knew Liam, and Liam knew them.

One moment Niall was pushing his way through the crowd of people gathered in the kitchen, and the next he was bumping into Harry.

“It’s 11:59, mate.” Niall was staring at Harry’s lips forming the words. Sure enough seconds later everyone in the house was counting down loudly “5, 4, 3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR.”

Harry’s lips pressed against Niall’s, messy and wet (and Niall really needed to stop having sloppy kisses he wasn’t prepared for). Harry deepened it deftly though, flicking his tongue out to meet Niall’s and Niall just gripped on to Harry’s shoulders and rode it out. His mouth mostly tasted like sugar and alcohol and it was heady as fuck, and Niall was feeling like he could just pass out but then Harry pulled away, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Sorry, mate. Just wanted a New Years snog, and you’re pretty fit.”

By the time Niall processed Harry’s words and was thinking that he should thank him or _something_ , Harry was already disappearing through the crowd. So Niall just kept pushing his way through the sea of people again. When he finally found Louis and Liam, they were on the couch in Harry’s living room, surrounded by people, but snogging intensely. Louis was straddling Liam’s legs and grinding into him quite filthily, with Liam’s hands grabbing Louis’ ass. For about the millionth time that night, he was thinking about Zayn. Thinking about how if he had let Zayn keep kissing him, he could end up on a couch grinding into Zayn’s lap, with Zayn’s long fingers tracing patterns up his sides. Could have someone to bring home after a long day at the bakery, someone to curl up into when he was able to sleep in on Sunday and Monday mornings.

“I’m a fucking idiot,” he said out loud. He looked around. Absolutely nobody was paying attention to him. Whatever. He pushed his way back through the crowd, towards the bathroom outside of Harry’s bedroom. It was empty, thankfully, and he locked the door behind him. It might have been a rash decision, but Niall wasn’t going to be this drunk again for a very long time so he might as well take advantage of it. He’d never really had to call  Zayn’s number before. He had it for emergencies, but one hadn’t come up yet. It rang, and rang, and rang, and finally went to voicemail.

“Hi Zayn, it’s Niall. Happy New Years, I hope you had a great night. Are having a great night, I guess. Erm. Listen okay, when you kissed me, in the bakery? I shouldn’t have stopped that. It was really nice, and you tasted like Kirsch and I _know_ you were eating the fruit cake and I haven’t been able to get the taste of sour cherry out of my mouth.” Niall swallowed to coat his dry mouth. “Harry kissed me, tonight. It didn’t mean anything, he just wanted a midnight kiss, and it was nice but he didn’t smell like cigarette smoke. And then I saw Louis and Liam making out, oh they finally got together, by the way, and all I could think about was how much I wish that I was making out with you at one of Harry’s shitty parties. Just, come back and don’t hate me, please? I’ll see you on Tuesday.”

  


Niall spent all of his New Years Day nursing a wicked hangover on Harry’s couch, and when he finally made it back to his own flat that evening he passed out on his bed and didn’t wake up until the next morning. It was a Monday, and normally he’d be heading off to the bakery by about two in the afternoon, but he couldn’t manage to drag himself there until about three-thirty. He ducked into the back alley to go in through the back entrance, but when he grabbed the handle of the door he felt his stomach drop in panic. The door was already unlocked. His mind raced. Had he forgotten to lock it last time he left? Did someone break in? He pushed the door open as quietly as possible just in case there was someone in there, his hand already on his cellphone in case he needed to call the cops. He creeped up the hallway and peered into the kitchen.

“Zayn,” Niall breathed out a sigh of relief, but Zayn looked like he nearly jumped out of his skin as he turned around.

“Jesus! Niall, Christ you scared the crap out of me.”

“You scared _me_! I thought someone had broken in!”

Zayn laughed, and ran a hand through his hair and white powder scattered everywhere. Niall then noticed he was absolutely covered in flour. “Well, I was thinking you’d be here at two, but when you didn’t show up I figured I might as well start making some cookies for tomorrow. I’ve got boules de neige, petits beurres and croquantes fourrées,” Zayn gestured to the trays of unbaked but perfectly formed cookies waiting to get into the oven. It made sense, now. Zayn couldn’t bake without getting flour and sugar everywhere, especially without Niall’s supervision.

“I thought your train didn’t get in until tonight?”

“Well, when I got your message I decided to come back early.”

Niall could feel his cheeks heating up. “Oh, the message. God, I’ve really fucked this up, haven’t I? I mean, you’re a perfect worker, those boules de neige look perfect, and you’re funny and beautiful and you know I’m practically married to the bakery, but you still wanted to kiss me, and-”

“Want to kiss you.”

“Sorry?”

“I still want to kiss you. You haven’t fucked this up quite yet. Not beyond repair, at least.” Zayn was grinning now and Niall really didn’t want to start fucking things up beyond repair, so he crossed the kitchen as quickly as he could and pressed his lips to Zayn’s, got a firm grip on his floury hair. Their lips slid together perfectly this time. After a few seconds Zayn pulled away.

“Wait, so Louis and Liam got together?” Zayn asked with a cheeky grin.  
  
“Shut up, Zayn.” Niall pushed their lips back together. This time Zayn wasn’t sour like Kirsch, but sugary sweet with just a hint of cigarette smoke, and it was just perfect for Niall.

 

**Author's Note:**

> amour doux - sweet love  
> tarte aux pommes - apple tart (apple pie)  
> tarte aux potiron - pumpkin tart (pumpkin pie)  
> Le Gâteau d'Amour - just means The Cake of Love  
> pâtisserie - A French bakery  
> pâte feuilletée - puff pastry dough. can be used for tarts  
> macarons - a meringue based cookie usually sandwiched together with a filling  
> gâteaux - cake  
> éclairs au chocolat - chocolate éclair  
> soufflés - a very light cake that puffs up in the oven  
> pâte sucrée - sweet pastry dough, can be used for tarts  
> fours au cafe - a coffee flavoured petit four  
> petits fours - literally means "small oven", it refers to any small French confection  
> pâtissier - French baker  
> chaussons aux pommes - apple turnover  
> Ladurée- a famous pâtisserie founded in 1862. Known for their incredible macarons  
> Kirsch - a sour, dark cherry brandy often used in fruit cake and Black Forest cakes  
> boules de neige - snowballs. dough rolled in apricot preserves and shredded coconut  
> petits beurre - small butter cookies  
> croquantes fourrées - cream filled crunchy cookies


End file.
